Historical Overview

Within a few hundred years after humans (largely led by the efforts of the Europe and the United States) began space exploration, colonies were beginning to be established within the Solar System. First the moon (Luna) and then Mars, the colonies slowly spread outward from Earth.

After the advent of the plasma drive, access to neighboring star systems was inevitable. The first interstellar colony was to a star known as Ross 154. The colony was dispatched and took two and a half years for it to arrive. Once the colony arrived and was established (and named itself Ross Prime), it quickly grew over the next ten years to a city nearly the size of Seattle. An unknown catastrophic event occurred and most of the inhabitants of the colony were killed in 2204. The survivors were found years after the event, and with little memory of what happened. The prevailing theory of what happened is a civil war, triggered by a natural disaster (groundquake) that eliminated most of the stored resources required for the continued survival of the colonists. The conflict was so severe that the survivors were those that took on the most animal and basic of instinct. The found survivors could barley remember speech and civilized conduct.

Another colony was formed some two years after the Ross Prime incident (with the lessons learned of Ross Prime) on Lacaille 9352 (informally called just LaSalle by it's inhabitants). This is considered the first successful human colony.

Soon other colonies began to form, and with the advent of faster plasma drives, the distances became larger. One in four colonies succeeded during the next fifty years, and very soon it became clear that an inter-colony government was needed. This government took the form of a legislative body called the Human Republic. For the next 150 years, the Republic governed with a light hand, and acted as a sort of mentor to the colonies, rather than a father.

The Human Republic finally proved insufficient when a very large corporation, known as Shuvanaljis Drives LTD, developed the means to travel between star systems in the space of days (rather than the months and years it took before). The Human Republic made an attempt to seize the technology, known as an alter-space drive. But lacked sufficient resources to successfully do so. When Shuvanaljis defended their interests with force it was known as the Shuvanaljis Revolt. Most of the Republic's forces were destroyed, and it's members arrested. Afterward, Shuvanaljis assumed the mantle of power over most of the human race and its colonies (with the obvious exception of the Confederation and the non-aligned worlds).